Tuna Empanada Pie & Sweet Cicely and Rhubarb Crumble  – Everyone’s kitchen

Tuna Empanada Pie

With side salad

Sweet Cicely and Rhubarb Crumble 

Harvest of the day

For side salad: Mizuna, lettuce, parsley, chives, fennel leaves, spinach, primrose leaves, claytonia

For Empanada: Broccoli

For the crumble: Sweet cicely, rhubarb 

Tuna Empanada Pie (x6)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3-4 medium potatoes, cubed
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 red peppers, diced
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 300ml vegetable stock
• 185g can sustainable tuna in spring water, flaked
• 500g pack shortcrust pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

Method

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Fry onion, garlic, potatoes and carrots in oil for 5 mins until softening. Add peppers, paprika, herbs and tomato purée, and cook for 5 mins.

Add stock, bring to the boil, then simmer until stock is absorbed and vegetables are tender. Add the tuna.

Roll a quarter of the pastry into a 22cm circle. Roll remaining pastry to line a 22cm loose-bottomed tin, allowing the pastry to come over the edges of the tin.

Fill with the tuna mix and top with the pie lid. Brush the edges with egg then fold over the sides and press down with a fork to seal. Make two holes in the top, brush with egg and bake for 35-40 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool slightly, then serve.

Sweet Cicely and Rhubarb Crumble 

Traditionally sweet cicely is cooked with rhubarb. Choose the juiciest young stems, before the fibres have formed, and just chip both stem and leaf up and mix them with your chopped rhubarb. There’s no rule but I generally do 50/50. The aniseed flavour is very mild as it doesn’t survive the heat well but you won’t need to use any added sugar. This is because anethole, a natural compound found in sweet cicely, is actually sweeter than sucrose. 

For sweet cicely and rhubarb crumble I layer the chopped rhubarb and the chopped sweet cicely into a greased baking dish. I then put a handful of pinhead oatmeal in a mixing bowl with a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground hogweed seed and a knob of butter, and knead the butter in to make a very dry mix. I then add a couple of tablespoon of sunflower seeds and  pistachio nuts, and a dessertspoon of honey. When all is well blended together I sprinkle it over the fruit to cover it. Pop it into a preheated 180C oven for half an hour until brown on the top. Serve with cream.